Pickup truck bedliners formed of polyolefins (e.g., polyethylene, polypropylene and the like) are well known and have achieved widespread commercial popularity as a means to prevent a pickup truck's bed from becoming marred when hauling cargo. Recently, however, the electrically insulating properties of such polyolefin bedliners has been identified as a possible hazard when handling flammable fluids on or near a bedliner-equipped pickup truck. Specifically, it has been suggested that the risk of static discharges is significantly greater for pickup trucks equipped with polyolefin bedliners since static charges cannot dissipate over the entire area of the painted aluminum bed surface, as would otherwise occur if the electrically insulative bedliner was not present. Therefore, operators of pickup trucks with such electrically insulative bedliners must use extreme caution when handling flammable fluids on or near the truck bed.
Thermoplastic compositions having electrically conductive filler materials (e.g., carbon black, graphite and the like) blended therewithin are also well known. However, in order to obtain the necessary electrical conductivity sufficient to dissipate static electrical charges, the electrically conductive filler materials must be blended in such large amounts that deleteriously affect the mechanical properties of the resulting thermoplastic composition. As a result, such electrically conductive thermoplastic materials are not suitable for use in forming automotive bedliners, especially bedliners for use with pickup trucks.
It would therefore be highly desirable if automotive bedliners formed of thermoplastic materials were provided which are sufficiently electrically conductive (i.e., so as to allow static electrical charges) to be dissipated, but which maintain their desirable mechanical properties. It is towards fulfilling such a need that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention is embodied in automotive bedliners formed of a thermoplastic material (e.g., a polyolefin, such a polyethylene and/or polypropylene) having a matrix of electrically conductive fibers physically embedded in at least one side thereof. By physically embedding the conductive fibers in a surface of the bedliner, the fibers are capable of establishing electrical continuity between the bedliner and the pickup truck bed thereby effectively dissipating static electrical charges and preventing undesirable (and potentially hazardous) discharges.
These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more clear from the following detailed description of the following preferred exemplary embodiment of the present invention.